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Step 5 is the diagonals. I’ve started by coming up in the left-hand corner – the nearest corner, this one here. Underneath the yellow golf tee, I’ve come up underneath there, and as you can see, it goes over the verticals, the corner of the verticals there…and these ones, here, the horizontals. So, I’ve gone over the horizontals and the verticals, next one over, and you just keep following that. If you do the opposite, in other words, if you go over the horizontal and under the vertical, you’ll find you get a real zig-zag sort of pattern, and it’s not gonna slide nicely.

So, I just run this bit through first. Don’t forget, keep the cane nice and wet and you’ll find it slides easily. See, a couple of the strands have been put in now. And, when I said start from the corner, you can see down in the bottom here – just drop that – that I came up that one there and did a couple over here, and now I’m coming back. The reason that we start off in the corner is so that when you do come back this way, you’ve got a choice by going over that and coming down in there, or you can come over there. But, you see how awful that would look. So, join it back in the corner, there, get a little V shape and bring that cane underneath there and up here, and off you go. Keep going back and forth. You may get to a point in over this corner where you can join the diagonals so they go both into the same hole, and you will see that in a minute. But, really, it’s just aesthetically, you’ve got to make sure that it looks really nice and keep nice, parallel widths – that’s all you need to do. There’s no law, no rules, no one’s gonna come knock on your door saying you done it wrong. Just make sure you keep a nice, parallel look and that’s it! OK, I’m gonna keep going until I finish this step.

OK, now, were progressing with Step 6. That’s the final one of the diagonals. You can see all of the other ones are in place. I’ll put this black bit underneath so you can see it a little bit better…shows it up a little easier. Once again, I’ve started in the right-hand corner this time, underneath the white peg, and I’m gonna pull it up. And this time, you go over the horizontals and under the verticals. So you do the opposite way of weaving, compared to the first diagonal. It makes a little bit more sense once I’ve woven a few more strands.

So now I’ve finished Step 6, so both of the diagonals are in, you can see that it’s nice and neatly done. I’ll leave the golf tees in for the moment. And Stage 7, Step 7 will be the edge strip that gong all the way around where the outside holes are. You’re going to put the binder cane in, and that’s where we remove the golf tees one by one and tie off underneath.

OK, first of all you need to cut up some little pegs, and these are made out of pith core, or little timber plugs. And I’m just cutting them nice and short and putting a little sharp point on the end, if you want to, in every other hole, going around the back here. So, every 2nd hole, just tuck that into the hole. You can always push them in with your finger, but every 2nd hole, just tuck them in…another one here, and follow them all around. Take this golf tee out, and continue that around.

And you need also a binder cane, which is this one here. It’s a little bit wider than the normal rattan you need for here, so that it covers the holes up. Plug that in there, and then you have the same size cane, which is what we use in the weaving – that was the 2 ml cane, and what you need to do is come out from that hole there, go over the top of it, and pull down really tight. So, you see that for a finish. Come up through the 2nd hole and re-weave that down in that same hole again so you get that nice, little edge for it. So I’m just gonna do a few strands of that to show you what it looks like. Also, start from the back. It makes it easier to finish off, and a lot neater. So, I’m just finishing off where we first started. Just going back over the top , with the binder, just go back over the top of the other a little bit and lock it in. Just pull it a bit tight, and that’s it!

Then, all you need to do is tie off all these loose fits underneath here and snip them off and you’re finished! OK, to finish off underneath, turn the chair upside down and bring some of these canes here and just tuck them up under the next area, which is tricky with one hand! Just like that! And if you want to just finish them all off and nip off the excess, and that should hold quite easily. If you’re really worried about it, I normally put a tiny bit of pba glue just to stop them from moving. That dries clear and then it’s a nice, neat job.

OK, I’ve just finished off a bit of shellacs to brighten the color up, and now you can see that the whole seat has been hand-woven. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of doing these, and
I’m sure you will too. It’s very therapeutic! Just remember to keep the rattan nice and wet when you go to do any weaving, so naturally, stop and start whenever you want to, but maintain this to be wet for weaving. And that’s about it! If this has been helpful for you, leave a comment at the bottom of the video, would be greatly appreciated, and look out for more Need A Good Caning videos. Thanks again, bye for now!